JCHC Board Gets Financial Report

The Board of Trustees for the Johnson County Healthcare Center was given the financial report for the month of March at their regular meeting Wednesday night.

Hospital Administrator Sandy Ward said the income for the facility looked good for the month, but expenses were higher than anticipated.

Ward said there was an inventory adjustment to supplies for nearly $12,000 and he discovered an error in the utility billing, where some of the electrical costs were inadvertently charged to the construction project, and that needed to show an adjustment on this month's books.

Ward told the board he has seen what he called “disturbing trends” in revenue and patient numbers in the last few years, with the average number of hospital patients decreasing from 7.5 to 8 patients per day down to a current average of 6 per day. He said similar decreases in numbers are happening at the clinic and care center.

Ward told the board if those trends continue, they will basically be overstaffed and will have to do something to correct the problem, but added it would be a significant issue for the healthcare center.

The hope, he said, will be to increase volume of patients this year, but there will be some challenges ahead for the organization.